The Halo eBook

“You!” he cried, impetuously, and then
stood still. “You got my note?” he
added a second later, sternly.

Her heart sank. He was very strong. Then
he came towards her, his brows drawn down over his
eyes, his nostrils dilated, and she lied.

“No—­what note?”

Normans are quick to suspect deceit, and for a moment
his expression did not change; then, for individually
the man was as trustful as racially he was suspicious,
he smiled. “I see. But why are you
out so early? It is not yet nine.”

“And you?” she returned deftly, her heart
beating not only with the excitement of the duel,
but with enjoyment of her own skill.

“I—­well, I have business.”

“Then get in and I’ll take you wherever
you want to go, I want to talk to you.”

He hesitated, but she smiled at him and he succumbed,
thinking to himself, she could see, that after all
she knew nothing of what was going on in his mind.

As he took his place beside her the cabman opened
his trap-door and asked with the hoarseness of his
kind:

“W’ere to, sir?”

Joyselle frowned. “To—­Piccadilly.
I’ll tell you when we get to where I wish to
stop.”

Brigit suppressed a smile. Now he was thinking,
she saw, that he would tell her of his intended departure
before he gave the Cunard Company’s address.

He was pale, but to her surprise looked younger rather
than older than usual. His mental disturbance
had left traces on his face, and they were, as it
was, young in their nature. He had fallen in love,
and the youth in him, both physical and mental, flared
up responsively to the call of the emotion.

Suddenly she saw her line of action clearly marked
out for her, and without an instant’s hesitation
took it. If he suspected that she loved him,
nothing in the world could keep him by her. So
he must not know. In all her dreams and reflections
about their relations, she had never taken into account
the possibility of things turning out as they had.
She had always tacitly taken for granted that it would
be by her will that the man should be waked up to
the real state of his own mind. Even after the
evening of the dragon-skin frock he had not known the
real explanation of his amazement on her entrance,
and had, she knew, merely advanced in his perilous
path to the point of realising that she was, although
his future daughter, an amazingly desirable woman.

So far she had read him correctly. But that something
outside her own personal sway should open his eyes
she had not anticipated.

This had, however, happened, and with the acute intuition
of a woman fighting for her life, she understood what
she must do to prevent his flight.

So, turning towards him, she smiled amusedly.

“Eh, b’en, Beau-papa? Got
over your fright? You big baby!”

He stared, and she went on without a pause, but speaking
slowly, to give an idea of leisure, “To think
that you of all people should be afraid of thunder!
It was lucky you had your valorous daughter to shield
you.”